Wedding Week: Our Decor

One of my favorite parts of wedding planning was deciding on the decor. I wanted the day to feel like a whimsical garden fiesta—full of fun and prettiness. We served Mexican food during the cocktail hour and reception (as a nod to how we met) which is why we went with a fiesta theme instead of a regular ol’ party.

After picking out our wedding colors (cream, ivory, blush, gold, coral and hunter green), we worked with our friend Andrew Beach to create a custom invitation suite. I thought he nailed it with our illustrated mini-mes, the happy/sad faces on the RSVP card (with the words “absolutely” and “unfortunately” for guests to circle one) and the zebra-print envelope liners. I also learned calligraphy and practiced for a few months before the wedding so I could address all the envelopes. It was fun putting my skills to use, but I’ll admit, it was hard work. I haven’t done calligraphy since, ha!

Since our wedding took place in early September, one of the hottest times of year in California, I also had Andrew create a paper fan that we left for each guest on their ceremony seat. It doubled as the wedding program. The icons for the different events were my favorite!

Andrew used the same fresh shade of coral from our invites on all our signage which he hand-painted. “For the Love of Pies” was our wedding hashtag and our wedding website domain name because of our new shared last name “Pies” (“Like the dessert!” That’s what I always say whenever I meet someone new.)

Keeping within our color palette, our florals included coral garden roses, apricot ranunculus, peach poppies and pink tulips. We worked with Gavita Flora who did an amazing job on everything. It sounds so cheesy, but when Alan and I walked into the reception, all the florals took my breath away. I wanted the reception space to look bright and clean, so we went with white tablecloths and chairs but added blush-colored sequin table runners just for fun.

To play up the fiesta element, we used mini pinatas for the table numbers. I spray-painted these wood circle plaques gold and used Blu-Tack reusable adhesive
to attach the pinatas to them. We also had big pinatas that spelled out “LOVE.” (I wish we had snapped some portraits with these!) I originally wanted to hang these behind the taco bar buffet, but the wind kept moving them around, so our coordinators at Going Lovely decided to place them on our escort card table instead.

For escort cards, we tied each guest’s name to a wooden fork. The idea was that they’d carry their fork over to their assigned table and find a mini pie waiting for them on their place setting with the instructions to eat dessert first!

One strangely complex problem that came up was the issue of drinking glasses and who and how they’d be placed on the reception tables. The rental company made it into this huge ordeal. You have to problem-solve the weirdest things when you’re planning a wedding! To make it easy, I just placed all the glasses on a table next to the drink dispensers. Going Lovely had the brilliant idea to place some of the glasses on white crates to create height and interest. And Andrew painted a sign to let guests know to keep their glass for the night. I found the fruit drink stirrers while shopping one day and thought they’d add a whimsical touch.

To go along with our taco bar dinner, we had a self-serve beverage bar with horchata, sangria and strawberry agua fresca. Andrew painted mini signs with the names of each drink.

Everyone loves photo booths, but we decided to save money and have a photo guest book instead. We asked two friends to “man” the table and set up a simple photo backdrop. Guests had so much fun taking pictures in front of it and leaving a copy in our book.

For our cakes, we saved a ton of money by opting for a spread of single-layer cakes instead of a tiered cake. (Who knew tiers cost so much?!) I loved the way all the different cakes looked set up and didn’t even miss having a taller cake. Each cake was decorated with a different texture and our main cake had a subtle pink/peach/white ombre frosting effect. I don’t know if anyone noticed, but it was still fun for me to see it all just like I envisioned.

Everyone loved our mini-me illustrations from our invitations, so our friend Roy used them to create our magnet favors. I put them all on a big magnetic board and had Andrew paint another pun-ny sign.

And that’s all for decor, whew! Tomorrow I’ll share what we wore. Thanks for reading!

p.s. If you’re interested in purchasing any of our decor, please check out what’s for sale on the shop page.

6 Replies to “Wedding Week: Our Decor”

The bride is just gorgeous! How wonderful dress and the veil! The party décor is also amazing. For me it was a perfect wedding ceremony. Thanks for the photos. You know I just got married at the most beautiful holiday party venue.

Love the wedding decor and the creativity which you shared with us. That is pretty and It has a lovely wedding invitations suit which really inspires me. Thanks for sharing a wonderful post and also Ideas.